Deaffest 2026 | Film & TV Awards: Judges Reveal

Bhulla Beghal is a UK-based writer and director working across scripted and unscripted film. His work explores lived experience and underrepresented perspectives through character-led, observational storytelling, often engaging with complex or emotionally charged subject matter. He is a three-time Royal Television Society award winner, with films recognised for both craft and social impact. Bhulla is the founder of BlueBell Films, which produces high-end work across the charity, research and community sectors. He is a member of BAFTA Connect, an industry advisor to Create Central, and a Governor at Longwill Primary School for Deaf Children.

Caroline O’Neill is a deaf BSL user and a pioneering BBC Commissioning Executive. With over 25 years in television, she has worked on landmark programmes including Joe & John Bishop: Life After Deaf, The Rap Game UK, and Disability & Abortion: The Hardest Choice. A passionate advocate for inclusion, Caroline co-founded Deaf & Disabled People in TV (DDPTV), growing its membership to over 2,600 and earning the Grierson Hero of the Year Award 2023.  From popular programmes like Escape to the Country and Garden Rescue to impactful documentaries, Caroline promotes an inclusive, accessible media landscape that truly reflects an equitable society.

Charlotte Bogard Macleod is a playwright, whose work has been performed on BBC Radio 4 and the British stage. She is currently under commission to co-write a musical for The Curve Theatre and a feature film for Screen Australia. She is a recipient of the Jerwood Arvon Award and was nominated for a BBC Drama Award.

She founded, and co-runs The Script Factory, one of Britain’s leading film development organisations. She was an elected Board member the British Council, Scottish Screen and The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). She hosts The Screen Players Film Club podcast.

Multi-disciplinary Artist, Writer & Director Sofya Gollan is an award-winning filmmaker nominated for 4 ACCTA Awards (OZ’s equivalent to BAFTA) for Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Short Film for her films. IMAGINED TOUCH, travelled to Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in NYC and Melbourne’s ACMI in 2023, and was nominated for Director Best Short Documentary from the Australian Directors Guild. In 2024 she won an Australian Writer’s Guild Award for Best Screenplay for Documentary (Community) in 2024.  As an actor she has worked with the Sydney Theatre Company, the National Theatre of the Deaf USA, multiple TV dramas, but is best loved for being a presenter on ABC’s Play School, where she is now Studio Director for series ‘Sensational Senses’.